Image processing system, image processing method, and program

ABSTRACT

An image processing system, an image processing method, and a program capable of implementing an association of a person appearing in a video image through a simple operation are provided. The image processing system includes an input device which accepts input of video images captured by a plurality of video cameras, a display screen generating unit which causes a display device to display at least one video image among the video images inputted from the input device, and a tracked person registering unit which is capable of registering one or more persons appearing in the video image displayed by the display device. When a person appears in the video image displayed by the display device, the display screen generating unit selectably displays person images of one or more persons, which are associable with the person appearing in the video image and which are registered by the tracked person registering unit, in a vicinity of the video image.

CROSS-REFERENCES

The present application is a Continuation application of Ser. No.14/417,880 filed on Jan. 28, 2015, which is a National Stage Entry ofPCT/JP2013/066568 filed on Jun. 17, 2013, which claims priority fromJapanese Patent Application 2012-170403 filed on Jul. 31, 2012, thecontents of all of which are incorporated herein by reference, in theirentirety.

BACKGROUND

Aspects of the present invention relate to an image processing system,an image processing method, and a program.

In recent years, systems for carrying out monitoring over a wide rangeusing video images from a plurality of cameras are being considered. Forexample, Patent Publication JP-A-2008-219570 discloses a device that iscapable of appropriately tracking (monitoring) a person across camerasusing inter-camera coupling relation information. The device determinesa correspondence relation of a person in accordance with a similarity inperson visual features between a point where a person appears in acamera view (an appearing point) and a point where the person disappearsfrom the camera view (a vanishing point).

When a correspondence relation of a person is automatically determinedaccording to similarity as is the case of the device described in PatentPublication JP-A-2008-219570, errors occur with a probability. Inconsideration thereof, there are demands for person re-identificationwith human involvement.

However, person re-identification by a human initiative conceivablyresults in complicating operations. When operations forre-identification become too complicated, work for re-identificationbecomes preoccupying and causes problems such as paying less attentionto monitoring and creating a psychological obstacle to use.

SUMMARY

Some of the aspects of the present invention have been made inconsideration of such problems, and an object of these aspects is toprovide an image processing system, an image processing method, and aprogram capable of re-identification of a person appearing in a videoimage with a simple operation.

An image processing system according to the present invention includes:input means for accepting input video images captured by a plurality ofvideo cameras; first display control means for causing at least onevideo image among the video images inputted from the input means to bedisplayed by a display device; registering means capable of registeringone or more persons appearing in the video image displayed by thedisplay device; and second display control means for selectablydisplaying, when a person appears in the video image displayed by thedisplay device, person images which are associable to the person andwhich are related to one or more persons registered by the registeringmeans in a vicinity of the video image.

An image processing method according to the present invention includesthe steps of: accepting input of video images captured by a plurality ofvideo cameras; causing at least one video image among the inputted videoimages to be displayed by a display device; registering one or morepersons appearing in the video image displayed by the display device;and selectably displaying, when a person appears in the video imagedisplayed by the display device, person images, which are associable tothe person and which are related to one or more registered persons, in avicinity of the video image.

A program according to the present invention causes a computer toexecute the processes of: accepting input of video images captured by aplurality of video cameras; causing at least one video image among theinputted video images to be displayed by a display device; registeringone or more persons appearing in the video image displayed by thedisplay device; and selectably displaying, when a person appears in thevideo image displayed by the display device, person images, which areassociable to the person and which are related to one or more registeredpersons, in a vicinity of the video image.

Moreover, as used in the present invention, the terms “unit”, “means”,“device”, and “system” not only signify physical means but also includecases where functions of the “unit”, “means”, “device”, and “system” arerealized by software. In addition, functions of one “unit”, “means”,“device”, or “system” may be realized by two or more physical means ordevices, and functions of two or more “units”, “means”, “devices”, or“systems” may be realized by one physical means or device.

According to the present invention, an image processing system, an imageprocessing method, and a program capable of re-identification of aperson appearing in a video image with a simple operation can beprovided.

DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing a schematic configurationof a monitoring system according to a first embodiment;

FIG. 2 is a flow chart showing a specific example of a display screen;

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a specific example of a pop-up windowdisplayed on the display screen shown in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a flow chart showing a flow of processes of the informationprocessing server shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a functional configuration of ahardware configuration capable of implementing the informationprocessing server shown in FIG. 1; and

FIG. 6 is a functional block diagram showing a schematic configurationof a monitoring device according to a second embodiment.

EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described. Inthe following description and in the description of the referenceddrawings, same or like components are represented by same or likereference characters.

1 First Embodiment

FIGS. 1 to 5 are diagrams for describing a first embodiment.Hereinafter, the present embodiment will be described in the orderexplained below with reference to these drawings. First, a functionalconfiguration of a system as a whole is presented in “1.1”, and anoutline of the first embodiment as a whole is presented in “1.2” byshowing a specific example of a display screen. Subsequently, a flow ofprocesses is presented in “1.3”, and a specific example of a feasiblehardware configuration is presented in “1.4”. Finally, operationaleffects achieved by the present embodiment and the like are described in“1.5” and thereafter.

(1.1Functional Configuration)

A functional configuration of a monitoring system 1 that is an imageprocessing system according to the present embodiment will now bedescribed with reference to FIG. 1. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing afunctional configuration of the monitoring system 1.

The monitoring system 1 is roughly constituted by an informationprocessing server 100 and a plurality of video cameras 200 (videocameras 200A to 200N will be collectively referred to as a video camera200) for capturing video images.

The video camera 200 captures a video image, judges whether or not aperson appears in the captured video image, and transmits informationrelated to the person such as a position and a visual feature to theinformation processing server 100 together with the captured videoimage. In addition, the video camera 200 can perform tracking of aperson appearing in a captured video image.

Moreover, processes such as detection of a person, extraction of avisual feature of a person, and tracking of a person inside a camera canbe performed by, for example, the information processing server 100 orby another information processing device (not shown).

The information processing server 100 performs various processes such asdetection of a person, registration of a person to be tracked, andtracking of a registered person by analyzing a video image captured bythe video camera 200.

While a case where person monitoring is performed based on a real-timevideo image captured by the video camera 200 will be described below,the present embodiment is not limited to this case and, for example,monitoring (analysis) may conceivably be performed on a video imagepreviously captured by the video camera 200.

The information processing server 100 comprises a camera control unit110, a similarity calculating unit 120, a tracked person registeringunit 130, a display screen generating unit 140, an input device 150, adisplay device 160, and a database (DB) 170.

Functions of the information processing server 100 may be realized by,for example, a plurality of devices such as a server and a client, inwhich case processes such as control of a camera (the camera controlunit 110), registration of a person to be tracked (the tracked personregistering unit 130), and generation of a display screen (the displayscreen generating unit 140) are performed by the server and processessuch as input by a user (observer) (the input device 150) and output ofa display screen (the display device 160) are performed by the client.Various methods of sharing processes between the server and the clientare conceivable.

The camera control unit 110 controls the video camera 200. Morespecifically, based on an user instruction or the like inputted from theinput device 150, the camera control unit 110 transmits commands forzooming in, zooming out, changing a imaging direction of camera upward,downward, leftward, or rightward, and the like to the video camera 200.In addition, the camera control unit 110 registers a video image orperson detection information received from the video camera 200 with theDB 170 as a captured video image 171 or detected person information 173.

The similarity calculating unit 120 calculates a similarity between aperson appearing in a video image inputted from the video camera 200 anda person registered with person tracking information 175. In doing so,the similarity calculating unit 120 calculates the similarity byselecting a person image showing a person in a posture similar to thatshown in an image of a person in the video image inputted from the videocamera 200 from a plurality of person images (person images of a sameperson taken at a plurality of timings) related to each registeredperson. Accordingly, an accuracy of similarity calculation can beincreased.

In this case, specifically, “a similar posture” refers to a posture thatenables states such as whether a person is facing the front, backward,rightward, or leftward, whether the person is bending down or not, andwhether or not the person is overlapping with another person to bejudged as being the same or similar (a posture with similar parametersfor judging such states).

Based on the user instruction and the like inputted from the inputdevice 150, the tracked person registering unit 130 registers a personappearing in a captured video image inputted from the video camera 200as a person under monitoring who is a tracking subject (monitoringtarget) with the person tracking information 175 of the DB 170. Inaddition, when the person appearing in the captured video image inputtedfrom the video camera 200 is judged to be the same person as a personalready registered with the person tracking information 175, the trackedperson registering unit 130 can also register the information with theperson tracking information 175.

The display screen generating unit 140 generates a display screen suchas that shown in FIG. 2 (to be described later) to be displayed by thedisplay device 160. The display screen generated by the display screengenerating unit 140 and displayed by the display device 160 shows one ormore video images (multi-camera video images) captured by the videocamera 200 and a graphical user interface (GUI) which can be used tochoose whether or not to newly register a person appearing in the videoimage as a person who is a tracking subject, whether or not to associatethe person appearing in the video image as the same person as a personwho has already been registered, or the like.

The input device 150 is a device used by a user (observer) for inputtingvarious types of information. For example, a pointing device such as amouse, a touch pad, or a touch panel, a keyboard, and the likecorresponds to the input device 150. The various afore-mentionedprocesses performed by the tracked person registering unit 130 such asthe registration of a person who is a subject and association with aregistered person are carried out based on operations of the inputdevice 150.

The display device 160 is a display in which an image is displayed on,for example, a liquid crystal or an organic electro luminescence (EL).The display screen created by the display screen generating unit 140 isdisplayed by the display device 160.

The DB 170 is built on various storage devices such as a hard disk drive(HDD; not shown). The DB 170 stores a captured video image 171, detectedperson information 173, and person tracking information 175.

Video images inputted from the video camera 200 are stored in thecaptured video image 171. Moreover, the captured video image 171 may beconfigured so that, for example, portions which have been stored for acertain period of time after capturing or portions which are judged asnot showing a person are deleted.

The detected person information 173 is information such as a visualfeature or a position of a person detected by the video camera 200 and aperson image.

The person tracking information 175 is information regarding a personjudged to be a tracking subject by the tracked person registering unit130 among persons detected as the detected person information 173. Whenpersons appearing in video images taken by the plurality of videocameras 200 are associated with each other as the same person by thetracked person registering unit 130, such information is also registeredin the person tracking information 175.

(1.2 Specific Example of Display Screen)

(1.2.1 Specific Example of Entire Display Screen)

Hereinafter, a specific example of a display screen displayed by thedisplay device 160 will be described with reference to FIG. 2. FIG. 2 isa diagram showing a specific example of a display screen (hereinafter,also referred to as a monitoring screen 20) that is displayed by thedisplay device 160 for person monitoring.

In the example shown in FIG. 2, the monitoring screen 20 includes videoimage display regions 21A to 21D (hereinafter, also collectivelyreferred to as a video image display region 21) which display capturedvideo images inputted from the plurality of video cameras 200 and amonitoring subject display region 23 which displays a person who is amonitoring subject.

As described above, the video image display region 21 displaysmulti-camera video images inputted from the plurality of video cameras200. The video images of the video cameras 200 displayed in therespective video image display regions 21 may be switched at any time toother video images. For example, control can conceivably be performed sothat after a person who is a monitoring subject moves out of a displayregion, the display is switched to a video image of the video camera 200in which the person is presumed to appear next in accordance with themovement of the person.

The monitoring subject display region 23 is a region in which isregistered a person selected by the user who is a observer as amonitoring subject among the persons appearing in the video imagedisplay region 21. As in the example shown in FIG. 2, a plurality ofpersons under monitoring can be selected (five in the example shown inFIG. 2). In addition, for each person, a plurality of person images (twoin the example shown in FIG. 2) showing different postures such as frontand back is displayed in the monitoring subject display region 23.

Furthermore, in the example of the monitoring screen 20 shown in FIG. 2,a pop-up window 25 is displayed above a person P appearing in the videoimage display region 21D. The pop-up window 25 is used to select whetheror not the person P is to be a monitoring subject and whether or not theperson P is the same person as a person already registered on themonitoring subject display region 23 as a monitoring subject.

The pop-up window 25 is displayed in a vicinity of a newly detectedperson P. In addition, a position of the pop-up window 25 also movesalong with a movement (motion) of the person P. Displaying the pop-upwindow 25 nearby produces such effects as making it easier to identify aperson P to be newly registered, enabling comparisons between the personP and persons under monitoring to be made more easily, and reducing arange (distances) of operation. Moreover, playback of the video imagethat shows the person P can be stopped temporarily when displaying thepop-up window.

(1.2.2 Specific Example of Pop-Up Window)

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a specific example of the pop-up window 25.In the example shown in FIG. 3, person images 31A to 31D (hereinafter,also collectively referred to as a person image 31) which are thumbnailsof persons under monitoring respectively assigned ID1, ID2, ID3, and ID5and a blank image 33 assigned ID6 are arranged side by side.

Moreover, while the present embodiment will be described using a casewhere still images are displayed as person images 31 as an example, thepresent embodiment is not limited thereto and, for example, video imagesmay be displayed instead.

Registration buttons 35A to 35E (hereinafter, also collectively referredto as a registration button 35) are arranged below the person images 31and the blank image 33. The registration buttons 35A to 35D are forregistering persons under monitoring who correspond to ID1, ID2, ID3,and ID5 and who have been registered in advance as the same person asthe person P appearing in the video image. The registration button 35Eis for registering the person P as a new person under monitoring withID6 separate from the persons under monitoring who correspond to ID1,ID2, ID3, and ID5 and who have been registered in advance.

For the person images 31A to 31D, images of postures similar to theposture of the person P appearing in the video image (for example, whensimilarities regarding postures are calculated, images exceeding athreshold) are selected from images regarding persons under monitoringextracted from a history of previous video images.

In addition, unlike the person images 31A and 31B, the person images 31Cand 31D are grayed out. This is because calculated similarities betweenthe person images 31C and 31D (persons under monitoring corresponding toID3 and ID5) and the person P are equal to or lower than the thresholdand, at the same time, calculated similarities between the person images31A and 31B (persons under monitoring corresponding to ID1 and ID2) andthe person P are higher than the threshold. In other words, since it ishighly likely that the person P is either the person under monitoringwith ID1 or the person under monitoring with ID2, these persons undermonitoring are displayed separately from the persons under monitoringwith ID3 and ID5 who are less likely to be the person P.

Moreover, in the example of the pop-up window 25 shown in FIG. 3, aperson image of a person under monitoring with ID4 is not displayed.This is because a similarity between the person under monitoring withID4 and the person P is even lower than the persons under monitoringwith ID3 and ID5. In other words, persons under monitoring withextremely low similarities who are highly unlikely to be the same personare not presented as persons under monitoring. Accordingly, since theuser who is a observer can reduce the number of persons under monitoringto be judged whether or not the persons are the same as the person P,the identities of the persons under monitoring can be judged by a moresimplified operation.

(1.3 Flow of Processes)

Next, processes performed by the information processing server 100 willbe described with reference to FIG. 4. FIG. 4 is a flow chart showing aflow of processes of the information processing server 100 according tothe present embodiment.

It should be noted that, as long as no contradictions are created incontents of the processes, the respective process steps described belowcan be arbitrarily reordered or executed in parallel, or another stepmay be added between the respective process steps. Furthermore, a stepdescribed as a single step for convenience' sake can be executed bydividing the step into a plurality of steps, and steps described dividedinto a plurality of steps for convenience' sake can be executed as asingle step.

First, the camera control unit 110 of the information processing server100 judges whether or not a person has been detected in an input imagefrom the video camera 200 (S401). For example, when person detection isperformed by the video camera 200, the judgment can be made by thecamera control unit 110 according to a person detection result receivedfrom the video camera 200.

The similarity calculating unit 120 reads person tracking information175 from the DB 170 in order to calculate a similarity between theperson detected in S401 and a person under monitoring (S403). The persontracking information 175 includes information such as a visual featuresand previous images of the persons under monitoring. For person imagesrelated to each person registered as a person under monitoring, thesimilarity calculating unit 120 calculates a similarity of posturesbetween a person registered as a person under monitoring and the persondetected by the video camera 200 to extract a person image (thumbnail)with the most similar posture (S405).

Subsequently, a similarity between the person image with the mostsimilar posture of each person under monitoring and an image of theperson detected by the video camera 200 is calculated (S407).Accordingly, since the similarities between the person detected by thevideo camera 200 and the persons under monitoring are calculated, thedisplay screen generating unit 140 arranges the pop-up window 25 in avicinity of (in the example shown in FIG. 2, above) the person detectedby the video camera 200 (S409). At this point, as described in “1.2.2”above, the pop-up window 25 according to the present embodiment ispresented to the user who is a observer so as to clearly indicate lowsimilarities by not displaying persons under monitoring withsimilarities that are lower than a first threshold and graying outpersons under monitoring with similarities that are lower than a secondthreshold that is higher than the first threshold.

Subsequently, when the person in the video image moves (Yes in S411),and the movement is not to the outside of the field of view of the videoimage (No in S413), a return is made to S409 to reposition the pop-upwindow 25 to the vicinity of the person. Moreover, while processes ofS405 and S407 are only performed once in the present embodiment, theprocesses of S405 and S407 may be repeated depending on a variation of aposture or the like of the person appearing in the video image.

(1.4 Configuration of Information Processing Device)

Hereinafter, an example of a hardware configuration of theafore-mentioned information processing server 100 will be described withreference to FIG. 5. Moreover, as described earlier, the functions ofthe information processing server 100 can be realized by a plurality ofinformation processing devices (for example, by a server and a client).

As shown in FIG. 5, the information processing server 100 comprises aprocessor 501, a memory 503, a storage device 505, an input interface(I/F) 507, a data I/F 509, a communication I/F 511, and a display device513.

The processor 501 controls various processes performed by theinformation processing server 100 by executing a program stored in thememory 503. For example, processes related to the camera control unit110, the similarity calculating unit 120, the tracked person registeringunit 130, and the display screen generating unit 140 described withreference to FIG. 1 can be realized as a program which is temporarilystored in the memory 503 and which mainly runs on the processor 501.

The memory 503 is a storage medium such as a random access memory (RAM).The memory 503 temporarily stores program codes of the program that isexecuted by the processor 501 and data necessary when executing theprogram. For example, a stack region that is required when executing theprogram is secured in a storage region of the memory 503.

The storage device 505 is a non-volatile storage medium such as a harddisk or a flash memory. The storage device 505 stores an operatingsystem, various programs for realizing the camera control unit 110, thesimilarity calculating unit 120, the tracked person registering unit130, and the display screen generating unit 140, various data includingcaptured video images 171, detected person information 173, and persontracking information 175 which are stored as the DB 170, and the like.Programs and data stored in the storage device 505 are referenced by theprocessor 501 by being loaded to the memory 503 as required.

The input I/F 507 is a device for accepting user input. The input device150 described with reference to FIG. 1 is realized by the input I/F 507.Specific examples of the input I/F 507 include a keyboard, a mouse, atouch panel, and various sensors. The input I/F 507 may be connected tothe information processing server 100 via an interface such as auniversal serial bus (USB).

The data I/F 509 is a device for inputting data from outside theinformation processing server 100. Specific examples of the data I/F 509include drive devices and the like for reading data stored in variousstorage media. The data I/F 509 may conceivably be provided outside theinformation processing server 100. In such a case, the data I/F 509 isconnected to the information processing server 100 via an interface suchas a USB.

The communication I/F 511 is a device for performing wired or wirelessdata communication with a device outside the information processingserver 100 including the video camera 200. The communication I/F 511 mayconceivably be provided outside the information processing server 100.In such a case, the communication I/F 511 is connected to theinformation processing server 100 via an interface such as a USB.

The display device 513 is a device for displaying various types ofinformation including the monitoring screen 20 and is, for example, aliquid crystal display or an organic electro-luminescence (EL) display.The display device 513 may be provided outside the informationprocessing server 100. In such a case, the display device 513 isconnected to the information processing server 100 via a display cableor the like.

(1.5 Operational Effects of the Present Embodiment)

As described above, the information processing server 100 according tothe present embodiment is configured so as to display the pop-up window25 when newly registering a person P appearing in the video camera 200as a person under monitoring or associating the person P as the sameperson as a person under monitoring already registered. The pop-upwindow 25 is configured so as to display the person images (thumbnails)of a plurality of persons under monitoring (tracking subjects) side byside and to display person images showing postures similar to that ofthe person P. In addition, the pop-up window 25 grays out or hidesperson images depending on similarities. Furthermore, the pop-up window25 moves along with a movement of the person P. Due to such processes,operations by the user who is a observer related to monitoring andassociating the person P (specifically, operations for finding andselecting a person under monitoring corresponding to the person P) canbe simplified.

2 Second Embodiment

Hereinafter, a second embodiment will be described with reference toFIG. 6. FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing a functional configuration ofa monitoring device 600 that is an image processing system. As shown inFIG. 6, the monitoring device 600 comprises an input unit 610, a firstdisplay control unit 620, a registering unit 630, and a second displaycontrol unit 640.

The input unit 610 accepts input of video images captured by a pluralityof video cameras. The first display control unit 620 causes a displaydevice (not shown) to display at least one video image among the videoimages inputted from the input unit 610.

The registering unit 630 registers at least one person appearing in thevideo image displayed by the display device. When a person appears inthe video image displayed by the display device, the second displaycontrol unit 640 selectably displays person images of one or morepersons which are associable with the person and which are registered bythe registering unit 630 in a vicinity of the video image.

By adopting such an implementation, the monitoring device 600 accordingto the present embodiment enables association of a person appearing in avideo image to be performed by a simple operation.

(3. Appendix)

Moreover, the configurations of the embodiments described above may becombined with each other or a part of the components may be replaced. Inaddition, configurations of the present invention are not limited to theembodiments described above and various modifications may be madewithout departing from the spirit and scope thereof.

A part of or all of the embodiments described above may also bedescribed as, but not limited to, the Supplementary notes providedbelow. In addition, the program according to the present invention needonly be a program that causes a computer to execute the respectiveoperations described in the embodiments described above.

(Supplementary Note 1)

An image processing system comprising: input means for accepting inputof video images captured by a plurality of video cameras; first displaycontrol means for causing at least one video image among the videoimages inputted from the input means to be displayed by a displaydevice; registering means capable of registering one or more personsappearing in the video image displayed by the display device; and seconddisplay control means which selectably displays, when a person appearsin the video image displayed by the display device, person images whichare associable to the person and which are related to one or morepersons registered by the registering means in a vicinity of the videoimage.

(Supplementary Note 2)

The image processing system according to Supplementary note 1, whereinwhen a person image is selected, the registering means associates theperson corresponding to a person image and a person appearing in a videoimage displayed by the display device.

(Supplementary Note 3)

The image processing system according to Supplementary note 1 or 2,wherein the first display control means displays a blank image alongwith the person image and newly registers a person appearing in a videoimage displayed by the display device when the blank image is selected.

(Supplementary Note 4)

The image processing system according to any one of Supplementary notes1 to 3, wherein when a similarity between a person appearing in a videoimage displayed by the display device and one or a plurality of personsregistered by the registering means is lower than a threshold, thesecond display control means displays the person image of the person,whose similarity is lower than the threshold, so as to be separate fromthe person image of a person whose similarity exceeds the threshold.

(Supplementary Note 5)

The image processing system according to any one of Supplementary notes1 to 3, wherein the image processing system displays the person image ofa person whose similarity between the person appearing in the videoimage displayed by the display device and one or more persons registeredby the registering means is higher than those of other persons.

(Supplementary Note (6)

The image processing system according to any one of Supplementary notes1 to 5, wherein the second display control means displays the personimage showing a posture approximating that of the person appearing inthe video image displayed by the display device.

(Supplementary Note 7)

The image processing system according to any one of Supplementary notes1 to 5, wherein the second display control means is capable ofdisplaying person images showing different orientations of a sameperson.

(Supplementary Note 8)

The image processing system according to any one of Supplementary notes1 to 7, wherein the second display control means changes a position ofthe person image in accordance with a movement of the person appearingin the video image displayed by the display device.

(Supplementary Note 9)

An image processing method of an image processing system, the imageprocessing method comprising the steps of: accepting input of videoimages captured by a plurality of video cameras; causing at least onevideo image among the inputted video images to be displayed by a displaydevice; registering one or more persons appearing in the video imagedisplayed by the display device; and selectably displaying, when aperson appears in the video image displayed by the display device,person images, which are associable to the person and which are relatedto one or more registered persons, in a vicinity of the video image.

(Supplementary Note 10)

The image processing system according to Supplementary note 9, whereinwhen a person image is selected, the image processing system associatesthe person corresponding to a person image and a person appearing in avideo image displayed by the display device.

(Supplementary Note 11)

The image processing system according to Supplementary note 9 or 10,wherein the image processing system displays a blank image along withthe person image and newly registers a person appearing in a video imagedisplayed by the display device when the blank image is selected.

(Supplementary Note 12)

The image processing system according to any one of Supplementary notes9 to 11, wherein when a similarity between a person appearing in a videoimage displayed by the display device and one or a plurality of personsregistered is lower than a threshold, the image processing systemdisplays the person image of the person, whose similarity is lower thanthe threshold, so as to be separate from the person image of a personwhose similarity exceeds the threshold.

(Supplementary Note 13)

The image processing system according to any one of Supplementary notes9 to 11, wherein the image processing system displays the person imageof a person whose similarity between the person appearing in the videoimage displayed by the display device and one or more persons registeredis higher than those of other persons.

(Supplementary Note 14)

The image processing system according to any one of Supplementary notes9 to 13, wherein the image processing system displays the person imageshowing a posture approximating that of the person appearing in thevideo image displayed by the display device.

(Supplementary Note 15)

The image processing system according to any one of Supplementary notes9 to 14, wherein person images showing different orientations of a sameperson can be displayed.

(Supplementary Note 16)

The image processing system according to any one of Supplementary notes9 to 15, wherein the image processing system changes a position of theperson image in accordance with a movement of the person appearing inthe video image displayed by the display device.

(Supplementary Note 17)

A program causing a computer to execute the processes of: acceptinginput of video images captured by a plurality of video cameras; causingat least one video image among the inputted video images to be displayedby a display device; registering one or more persons appearing in thevideo image displayed by the display device; and selectably displaying,when a person appears in the video image displayed by the displaydevice, person images, which are associable to the person and which arerelated to one or more registered persons, in a vicinity of the videoimage.

(Supplementary Note 18)

The program according to Supplementary note 17, wherein the programexecute the process of associating the person corresponding to a personimage and a person appearing in a video image displayed by the displaydevice when a person image is selected.

(Supplementary Note 19)

The program according to Supplementary note 17 or 18, wherein theprogram execute the process of displaying a blank image along with theperson image and newly registers a person appearing in a video imagedisplayed by the display device when the blank image is selected.

(Supplementary Note 20)

The program according to any one of Supplementary notes 17 to 19,wherein when a similarity between a person appearing in a video imagedisplayed by the display device and one or a plurality of personsregistered by the registering means is lower than a threshold, theprogram execute the process of displaying the person image of theperson, whose similarity is lower than the threshold, so as to beseparate from the person image of a person whose similarity exceeds thethreshold.

(Supplementary Note 21)

The program according to any one of Supplementary notes 17 to 19,wherein the program execute the process of displaying the person imageof a person whose similarity between the person appearing in the videoimage displayed by the display device and one or more persons registeredby the registering means is higher than those of other persons.

(Supplementary Note 22)

The program according to any one of Supplementary notes 17 to 21,wherein the program execute the process of displaying the person imageshowing a posture approximating that of the person appearing in thevideo image displayed by the display device.

(Supplementary Note 23)

The program according to any one of Supplementary notes 17 to 21,wherein person images showing different orientations of a same personcan be displayed.

(Supplementary Note 24)

The program according to any one of Supplementary notes 17 to 23,wherein the program execute the process of changing a position of theperson image in accordance with a movement of the person appearing inthe video image displayed by the display device.

The present application claims priority on the basis of Japanese PatentApplication No. 2012-170403 filed on Jul. 31, 2012, the entire contentsof which are incorporated herein by reference.

1. An image processing system comprising: one or more non-transitorystorage devices configured to store instructions; and one or moreprocessors configured by the instructions to: accept input of videoimages; cause at least one video image among the inputted video imagesto be displayed by a display device; register one or more personsappearing in the at least one video image displayed by the displaydevice; and cause the display device to display a window on a videoimage in which a person appears, the window being displayed in avicinity of the person in the video image, wherein the window comprisesone or more images of one or more persons which are already registeredas subjects to surveillance and are respectively settable as a sameperson as the person in the video by selection, wherein the one or moreprocessors are configured by the instructions to cause the displaydevice to display a blank image along with the one or more images of theone or more persons in the window, and wherein a person appearing in thevideo image is newly registered when the blank image is selected.
 2. Theimage processing system according to claim 1, wherein the one or moreprocessors are further configured to: extract, from among the one ormore persons registered as subjects to surveillance, the one or morepersons satisfying a condition in which similarities between the one ormore persons and the person in the video image meet a predeterminedcriterion; and cause the display device to display in the window the oneor more images of the extracted one or more persons, while notdisplaying an image of a non-extracted person in the window.
 3. Theimage processing system according to claim 2, wherein the one or moreprocessors are further configured to change a hue of at least one imageamong the one or more images to be displayed in the window, based on asimilarity between a person in the at least one image and the person inthe video image.
 4. The image processing system according to claim 1,wherein the one or more processors are further configured to cause thedisplay device to display, in the window, the one or more images of theone or more persons such that each posture of the one or more persons inthe one or more images is similar to the posture of the person in thevideo image.
 5. The image processing system according to claim 1,wherein the one or more processors are further configured to cause thedisplay device to display, in the window, one or more images of entirebodies of the one or more persons in a horizontal row.
 6. The imageprocessing system according to claim 1, wherein the window is overlappedon the video image in which the person appears.
 7. An image processingmethod comprising: accepting input of video images; causing at least onevideo image among the inputted video images to be displayed by a displaydevice; registering one or more persons appearing in the at least onevideo image displayed by the display device; and causing the displaydevice to display a window on a video image in which a person appears,the window being displayed in a vicinity of the person in the videoimage, wherein the window comprises one or more images of one or morepersons which are already registered as subjects to surveillance and arerespectively settable as a same person as the person in the video byselection, wherein the image processing method comprises causing thedisplay device to display a blank image along with the one or moreimages of the one or more persons in the window, and wherein a personappearing in the video image is newly registered when the blank image isselected.
 8. The image processing method according to claim 7, furthercomprising: extracting, from among the one or more persons registered assubjects to surveillance, the one or more persons satisfying a conditionin which similarities between the one or more persons and the person inthe video image meet a predetermined criterion; and causing the displaydevice to display in the window the one or more images of the extractedone or more persons, while causing the display device to not display animage of a non-extracted person in the window.
 9. The image processingmethod according to claim 8, further comprising: changing a hue of atleast one image among the one or more images to be displayed in thewindow, based on a similarity between a person in the at least one imageand the person in the video image.
 10. The image processing methodaccording to claim 7, comprising: causing the display device to display,in the window, the one or more images of the one or more persons suchthat each posture of the one or more persons in the one or more imagesis similar to the posture of the person in the video image.
 11. Theimage processing method according to claim 7, comprising: causing thedisplay device to display, in the window, one or more images of entirebodies of the one or more persons in a horizontal row.
 12. The imageprocessing method according to claim 7, wherein the window is overlappedon the video image in which the person appears.
 13. A non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium storing a program that causes acomputer to perform: accepting input of video images; causing at leastone video image among the inputted video images to be displayed by adisplay device; registering one or more persons appearing in the atleast one video image displayed by the display device; and causing thedisplay device to display a window on a video image in which a personappears, the window being displayed in a vicinity of the person in thevideo image, wherein the window comprises one or more images of one ormore persons which is already registered as subjects to surveillance andare respectively settable as a same person as the person in the video byselection, wherein the program causes the computer to cause the displaydevice to display a blank image along with the one or more images of theone or more persons in the window, and wherein a person appearing in thevideo image are newly registered when the blank image is selected. 14.The storage medium according to claim 13, wherein the program furthercauses the computer to perform: extracting, from among the one or morepersons registered as subjects to surveillance, the one or more personssatisfying a condition in which similarities between the one or morepersons and the person in the video image meet a predeterminedcriterion; and causing the display device to display in the window theone or more images of the extracted one or more persons, while causingthe display device to not display an image of a non-extracted person inthe window.
 15. The storage medium according to claim 14, wherein theprogram further causes the computer to perform changing a hue of atleast one image among the one or more images to be displayed in thewindow, based on a similarity between a person in the at least one imageand the person in the video image.
 16. The storage medium according toclaim 13, wherein the program causes the computer to perform causing thedisplay device to display, in the window, the one or more images of theone or more persons such that each posture of the one or more persons inthe one or more images is similar to the posture of the person in thevideo image.
 17. The storage medium according to claim 13, wherein theprogram causes the computer to perform causing the display device todisplay, in the window, one or more images of entire bodies of the oneor more persons in a horizontal row.
 18. The storage medium according toclaim 13, wherein the window is overlapped on the video image in whichthe person appears.